Freezer To Table, French Porcelain Dishes Out Style

November 19, 1992|By Jolene Worthington.

It`s time to take stock of the essential baking and serving dishes you`ll need to present at your holiday dinners.

Smart cooks plan to use dishes that can navigate from the refrigerator or stovetop to the oven, broiler or microwave oven and then to the dishwasher. The payoff of this planning is to impress guests with the array of dishes served perfectly hot and festive-looking and to make the cleanup less daunting.

I can`t imagine doing this holiday shuffle without at least two or three French porcelain baking dishes in which to hold vegetables, stuffing and dessert.

French porcelain ware is classically beautiful, with seamless lines as smooth as the inside of a seashell. Its high-glaze, milk-white finish is almost an art form. Many of these same designs have been used for more than a century.

But I also covet it for its pure practicality. Porcelain adapts to the oven, refrigerator and microwave oven easily, and even can be put under the broiler without a second thought.

Why? Because porcelain is fired at much higher temperatures than other ceramics. This makes the dish so nonporous that it is colorfast and strong enough to survive the extreme temperature shock of going from freezer to oven. French porcelain baking dishes are really designed for roasting and baking. Thick porcelain walls give gentle heat to their contents. But their shallow and wide surfaces allow dishes such as scalloped potatoes or roasted vegetables to brown.

Also, porcelain glazes are free of the lead and cadmium found on many kinds of fired earthenware. Their smooth finishes allow you to clean baking messes with a sponge.

- Among the best French porcelains are those made by Apilco, a consortium of French porcelain manufacturers. It is the most established brand in the U.S. market, bearing the logo of its North American subsidiary, Elite Design. Most practical of the Apilco-Elite baking dishes is a 12- by 9-inch oval, about 1 1/2 inches deep. Its size makes it a cross between a casserole and a gratin dish. Its classical shape with gently sloping sides and milk-white polished glaze makes it pretty enough to set centerstage on a holiday table. Its 6- to 7-cup volume is perfect for excess stuffing that won`t fit in the turkey, or cubes of butternut squash glistening with a buttered sauce.

- If you prefer the look of a square baking dish with almost the same dimensions and a capacity of 6 to 7 cups, the French-made Emile Henry also is a good choice. Glazed white inside and yellow or green outside, the Emile Henry will add color to your table. Porcelain by Emile Henry, a manufacturer from the south of France since 1850, has the same properties of the Apilco-Elite baking dishes. The 9 1/2-by-12 1/2-by 1 1/2-inch yellow and white porcelain dish sells is $24 at Williams-Sonoma stores.

- Don`t forget the turkey or ham platter. One of the simplest and most beautiful we`ve seen is Williams-Sonoma`s plain oval ceramic platter, imported from Italy. It is not heavy porcelain, but its 22 1/2-by-17 1/2-inch surface is serviceable for carving. It costs $99.99.

A less expensive solution is a Taiwan-made 19-by-14-inch oval ceramic turkey platter, sold by Kitchen Bazaar in Oakbrook Center for $11.99. Its milk-white surface has an embossed relief design of a turkey with fruits and vegetables.